4.1 oz California. Yuba Mine, Nevada County. Silver. 1897
Measuring 20.9 mm x 50.6 mm x 12.5 mm. Unmarked for weight and fineness. 127.6 grams, 4.10 troy ounces. A very simple ingot, with the top face (bottom of the pour) finely smoothed and polished, then carefully engraved “Yuba” in cursive with a smaller 1897 in the lower right corner. The other faces are somewhat rough and unprepared, as poured and hardened. Based upon its era and fineness, this almost certainly comes from the Yuba Mine of Nevada County, VA, near the small town of Washington on the Yuba River in the Sierra Nevadas.
Interestingly, one of the three co-owners of this mine in the mid-1880s was George E. Webber, the same man identified on the face of the Tip-Top Mine ingot from Arizona Territory, thus making this a natural companion piece for that bar.
The date 1897 is mysterious; it may be a 10th anniversary commemoration of the drilling of an 1,100 foot tunnel in 1887 that revolutionized this mine’s production capacity. An evocative and attractive piece from the California-Nevada border country.
[07/2009] https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-B2LFO/california-yuba-mine-nevada-county-silver ($7,762)